Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Creating Barcelona - La Masia


Barcelona has given the world something special these past 5 years.  Aside from winning 14/19 competitions since 2008, Barcelona has given the world beautiful football for 90 minutes week after week.  This playing style is truly unique and effective as Pep Guardiola saw only 21 defeats in 247 games with Barcelona. 


Truly a feat like this requires players with a spectacular amount of talent.  Players from all over the world would surely be needed to create this super team like other dominant squads have done such as “Los Galacticos” of Real Madrid in the early 2000s. Actually, 17/25 players on Barca’s current squad were brought up through its own youth academy.  La Masia. 

La Masia is Barcelona’s youth academy located near Camp Nou.  Over 300 youngsters train at this academy and 60 call it their home.  Receiving a spot at La Masia means free training, education and paid living expenses.  Youngsters here are taught the values of effort, work, and commitment.  A selfless, humble and polite man is the result of this school...  As well as an amazing BARCELONA player.

Efforts at La Masia are to produce players specifically for the first team.  From the youngest ranks, players are taught to play Total Football as established by Johan Cryuff in 1979.  Watching the U-15 Barca team is no different from watching the first team.  Both teams attack the same, defend the same and even obtain the same results, which is no surprise.  This makes it incredibly easy to assimilate players into the first team.  The result is a group of players who think the same and have played alongside each other throughout their lives.  When players sign their professional contract with Barcelona, it is not a job, but an honor and a life-long dream come true.

Nobody can deny that La Masia is a world class football school.  It would be easy to say Barcelona rounds up the world’s best young players, throws them on the pitch and of course results show.  Who can truly point the world’s BEST young players?  Messi was rejected by River Plate academy because of his size. The reality is half the kids at the academy come from the local province of Catalonia.  7 Catalonians also make up the first team.  The chances of the best youngsters in the world to be located within a 62 mile radius of the Camp Nou are highly unlikely (Half of that radius is ocean).  Clearly this school does something special to create top players.

What separates La Masia from other institutes is a deeper meaning of a home club.  These kids who are brought in don’t dream of becoming a professional but dream of playing for Barcelona.  This desire is what drives them to give their best and stay disciplined throughout their development.  The majority of the club personnel come from Catalonia which is fighting for its independence from Spain.   This adds to the love of the club for the local boys.  Secondly, playing with a unique philosophy of football sets the club apart from other teams. 

Yes this Barcelona squad seems to dominate every opponent week after week; but it will come to an end.  To have players as special as Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas, Pique and Puyol is something special.  Not to mention Pedro, Busquetes and Valdes which are world class players and World cup champions.  Now have these players work day in, day out with the already legendary Messi for the past 12 years and you have something that will never be repeated.  All these players have come from La Masia.  This Barcelona team will be imitated because this is the model that La Masia produces, but never repeated.

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